Ducks Unlimited will secure purchased and donated permanent conservation easements to protect 150 acres along key shallow lakes for waterfowl, and provide annual monitoring and enforcement stewardship.

Protect 400-600 acres of critical riparian habitats in specific regions of Minnesota by securing permanent conservation easements along lakes, rivers, and streams and dedicating funds to support those easements.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) will acquire approximately 44 acres, protecting and linking valuable, high quality habitat in Minnesota.

Ducks Unlimited will provide engineering assistance and contract with six (6) wetland restoration specialists to provide technical assistance to help the USDA-NRCS promote, secure, and restore federal Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) easements.

Ducks Unlimited will provide engineering assistance and contract with six (6) wetland restoration specialists to provide technical assistance to help the USDA-NRCS promote, secure, and restore federal Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) easements.

History Day, an annual program co-sponsored by the Minnesota Historical Society and the University of Minnesota, challenges young people to research a historical subject related to an annual theme and present their findings in the form of exhibits, documentaries, performances, websites and papers. It is a rigorous program used by schools to meet state graduation standards for history and applied learning. Minnesota is widely recognized as a national leader in using the History Day program to improve academic achievement in history. With the help of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, the Minnesota Historical Society is enriching services to History Day students and helping more students across the state with researching and creating their History Day projects. Services include: classroom visits by Society educators, support for field trips to county and university libraries, the assignment of undergraduate mentors from Minnesota colleges and universities to advise local students and organizing regional professional development workshops for History Day teachers. In FY12 and FY13, ACHF funds made it possible for the Society to deliver additional History Day services to more than 430 schools in 49 Minnesota counties. More than 525 teachers used these services, benefiting approximately 30,000 students in grades 6–12.

This groundbreaking project is creating a new model for school field trips using mobile and web technologies to capitalize on the natural behaviors and learning styles of today's students. "History in Our Hands: the Field Trip for the 21st Century Learner," will demonstrate how museums can use technology to create self-directed, personalized, responsive field trip experiences that deepen students" connection to history while honing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Launching in fall 2013 to students on field trips, "History in Our Hands" will first be used in the recently opened "Then Now Wow" exhibit. Upon entering the gallery, students will receive handheld devices pre-installed with the mobile application. The application will enhance students" experience and promote interaction with the physical exhibit by encouraging them to answer questions, solve problems and collect digital artifacts related to the exhibit and items in MHS's vast collections. These items will be stored in a student's "digital backpack," and can be accessed online long after the field trip is over, promoting further classroom study and post-visit projects. A "Classroom Toolkit" will also be available to help teachers incorporate the content from students" digital backpacks into future lessons and build on the fundamental strengths of field trips as supplements to classroom instruction. Society staff leveraged the initial research involved in creating "History in Our Hands," made possible by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, to earn a $449,000 national Leadership grant from the institute of Museum and Library Services in the fall of 2011.

The award-winning History Live program served more than 5,500 Minnesota students in FY12 while creating new history lessons to deliver via video conferencing technology. New programs focus on Dred and Harriet Scott, Dakota history and Jeffers Petroglyphs. History Live staff are also developing a way to deliver content to seniors living in residential facilities and will continue building a state and nationwide audience for these unique, high-energy history programs. History Live educators at the Minnesota History Center beam in-depth, interactive history programs into classrooms across the state and country. In 2012, History Live won a second award from the Center for interactive Learning and Collaboration for outstanding educational programming through video conferencing. The award is based exclusively on feedback from teachers who have used History Live in their classrooms.